


Venom Tried at Least

by taylor_tut



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Delirium, Fever, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Illnesses, Minor Dan Lewis/Anne Weying, Protective Venom Symbiote (Marvel), Sick Character, Sick Eddie Brock, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-20
Updated: 2019-03-20
Packaged: 2019-11-26 01:53:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18174281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taylor_tut/pseuds/taylor_tut
Summary: Venom learns that humans run fevers to kill viruses, so when Eddie gets sick, he goes a little hog-wild. Dan and Anne are there to make sure he doesn't cook.





	Venom Tried at Least

Eddie reached out to touch Anne’s forehead and sighed in relief when he found it to be much cooler than it had been all week.

“I think your fever is finally starting to break,” he announced. Dan’s temperature had gone down yesterday, but had come back up to 101°F this morning after he’d immediately used the newfound energy to work from home and was only now starting to head back in the right direction. Despite both of them getting their shots, the lovely thing about working in a hospital was that Dan was exposed to all kinds of fun and interesting strains of the flu, and this one had been generous enough to share itself with Anne, too. Eddie, reassuring them that the symbiote protected his vessel from damage like infections and, probably,  viruses, had offered to come over and play nursemaid. 

It had been a long, exhausting week. Anne’s fever had been too high for Eddie to feel comfortable leaving her alone so that he could rest, and by the time it had come down to a level that didn’t border necessitating a trip to urgent care, Dan had been feeling well enough to want to work and would use any opportunity, including Eddie taking a few moments to rest his eyes, as an opportunity to do so.

“I don’t understand,” Venom hissed, poking a small head out from Eddie’s shoulder, “why a human would want to elevate their temperature outside of its optimal range.”

Dan smiled patiently while Eddie stirred honey into Anne’s tea. “Increasing the body’s temperature helps to kill the infection,” he explained in a still-rough voice. “It’s to help you heal.” Venom nodded and receded back into Eddie’s body, seemingly satisfied with his piece of physiology trivia. 

“Thank you,” Anne croaked as she took her hot tea. As she blew on it, she looked over Eddie scrutinizingly. “You’ve been so good to us this week, Eddie, but we’re doing a lot better now. You can take a nap if you need it.” Despite the aching in his bones that said that YES, he DID desperately need some sleep, Eddie shook his head. Venom would keep him running even if it was on fumes, and he couldn’t let them see the mess he’d made in the kitchen while trying to cook them chicken noodle soup. 

“Nah, I’m good,” he shrugged her off, standing with some reluctance and difficulty that didn’t escape Dan’s watchful eye. He frowned. 

“You’re not catching this, are you?” he asked. “You said you couldn’t catch it.”

“I can’t,” Eddie reassured, though he was starting to feel less confident in that assertion by the hour. He’d assumed that the headache and muscle pain was just from being exhausted, but they’d done nothing but intensify, and now his throat was starting to feel scratchy and sore. Dan’s suspicious glare didn’t waver. 

_ “We are _ ,” Venom said in his head. Eddie blinked away the pain that caused to erupt behind his eyes. 

“Are you sure?” he verified disbelievingly. “Because you look pretty peaky.” Anne nodded in agreement.

“It’s just a bit of a headache,” he dodged, and apparently it was the wrong thing to say.

“That’s how Dan started,” she fretted, sitting up and setting her tea on the coffee table once more. He hated how worried she looked and thought that stress couldn’t possibly be good for the fever that she was just starting to recover from. Before she could reach out to touch his face, he was stepping backward.

“Seriously, I’m just tired. Haven’t really been sleeping, you know?”

Both Dan and Anne flushed pink. “Sorry,” they said together, and Eddie shook his head. 

“Don’t be,” he shrugged them off. He swiped the sleeve of his hoodie across his forehead to wipe away the dampness that was building there. Venom was unusually quiet, something that usually meant that he was either eyeing up a meal or sulking after Eddie had vetoed one. “I’m going to clean up in the kitchen a bit.”

Anne rolled her eyes. “Eddie, that’s not necessary—”

“Anyone want more soup while I’m in there?” he barrelled through whatever she was going to say next. He was pretty sure, at this point, that he WAS, in fact, able to get the same infections that he’d been susceptible to before the symbiote, but that was his own fault, and he didn’t want them to feel bad for having gotten him sick. Maybe Venom could still save it. Without even waiting for their inevitably negative answers, since he’d ensured that they’d eaten not two hours ago, Eddie headed straight for the kitchen to begin doing dishes. 

“Hey, V,” he muttered quietly, feeling his throat protest with pain, “would you mind takin’ care of this? Thought that was kind of your end of the deal, buddy.” Venom prickled at the insinuation that he wasn’t holding up his end of the bargain, but nevertheless agreed.

“I will heal us,” he reassured, and Eddie felt a warmth spread almost uncomfortably inside his chest. He turned the water on hot and slipped his hands into the yellow gloves that Anne always kept at the sink and got to work.

About halfway through the dishes, the “chaotic-bi” same-hoodie-for-200-days-in-a-row fashion choice was beginning to feel like a mistake, because it was definitely worn thin and wasn’t doing much to keep the chill from his bones. While logic would tell him to roll up his sleeves to do dishes, he couldn’t bring himself to risk losing that amount of heat as he began to shiver against the bone-deep chill of the house. Had he really turned the AC on that strongly to combat his friends’ fevers? It seemed overkill in retrospect, and borderline tortuous now that he was living it. He owed Anne an apology for brushing her off and doing nothing more than giving her another thin sheet when she’d said that she was cold earlier. 

“Eddie, is everything alright in there?” Dan called from the couch. That was when Eddie realized just how loudly he’d been throwing dishes around the sink, not even washing them. His head was fuzzy, aching and spinning in a manner so confusing that each individual soap bubble in the sink was beginning to look like its own tiny world and just the task of cleaning up the mess he was responsible for was overwhelming. Fuck, when wasn’t it?

“Great,” he called back, “almost done.” He’d do the dishes later, he decided. For now, he needed a nap, and badly. He stumbled back out to the living room and laid face-down on the loveseat. 

“Eddie?” Anne called. He could hear the fear in her voice, but he couldn’t bring himself to pick his head up from the sofa cushion to look at her. He offered what he hoped was a reassuring grunt, but what was more likely a pained moan, because the next thing that he was aware of was Anne and Dan flipping him over on the couch and touching his face. 

“Oh, my God,” Anne breathed, “Dan, he’s boiling. Get the thermometer.” They had one of those nice, hospital-grade ones that read in seconds, so it wasn’t more than a beat of waiting before the numbers appeared. 

“104.8,” Dan read aloud, taking a breath to steady himself. How had this come on so fast? Why was Eddie’s temperature molten when theirs hadn’t been anywhere near this bad?

“I’m going to call an ambulance,” Anne announced, but her phone was jerked out of her hand by a black, oozy arm as soon as she began to dial.

“They will not touch us,” Venom hissed. Dan frowned. 

“V, Eddie’s really, really sick. He needs a hospital. His brain is gonna fry if we don’t get that temperature down.” 

Venom paused a moment in pensive silence. “I am healing him,” he argued. “Elevated temperatures eradicate the pests. You said.”

Anne’s face went beet red. “You’re doing this?” she demanded, her voice turning shrill and angry. “You’re killing him!” 

“Anne, go run a cool bath,” Dan commanded gently. She looked concerned, but she knew better than to argue with Dan—not because there were consequences, but because he wouldn’t ever tell her to do something if he weren’t sure it was the right move. “Venom, you need to bring Eddie’s temperature back down. Nothing over 101 for now. You’re cooking him.” 

Things got fuzzy for a while after that, but when they were finally clearer, Eddie was, not for the first time in his life, fully clothed in a small enclosure of too-cold water. 

“Eddie,” Dan called as he opened his eyes, “you with us again?” He wasn’t sure where he’d gone, but Dan and Anne both looked very nervous, so he nodded. “Good. How are you feeling? Any more coherent?”

Eddie frowned. “What happened?” he asked, and Anne shot him a glare that he had a feeling wasn’t directed at him. 

“Your little friend thought it would be a good idea to spike your temperature up to 105,” she snapped. “You faded out on us for a while.” 

Eddie nodded. “Sorry,” he apologized because he wasn’t sure what else to do. She gave him a small smile and watched as Dan felt his forehead once more, sighing when he nodded.

“I think you’ve cooled down enough to get out of the tub,” Dan announced, and Eddie was nothing but grateful for the news. “We’ll get you into some dry clothes and set you up on the couch, okay?”

They helped him stand up, steadying him when he wavered dizzily, likely dehydrated from the searing fever, and wrapped him in a big, fluffy towel. 

“I think there’s still soup left,” Anne said. “I’ll go heat some up.”

“You don’t have to,” Eddie reminded her, a knee-jerk reaction to being cared for better than he was used to. “You’re still sick.”

Dan rolled his eyes. “We’re on the mend,” he reassured. “All three of us will take it easy on the couch for a bit, how about that?” 

Eddie found himself wanting nothing more than that, so he nodded and allowed them to lead him out of the bathroom and toward dry clothes, warm food, and a nice, much-needed rest. 


End file.
